Polygamy vs Monogamy - Why Did God Allow Polygamy? - 2 Chronicles 21-24

2 Chronicles 24:3 (ESV)

Jehoiada got for him two wives, and he had sons and daughters.

Okay, if you are like me, you have to wonder about this concept of polygamy in the Old Testament.  To my knowledge, of the almost 5,500 devotionals I have posted to this blog, I have never written about this subject. In truth, I can’t really explain it, myself.   If you do a search of the internet for an answer you get what I list below.   However, it was NOT God’s original plan.  God designed marriage to be monogamous. Note:

Genesis 2:24-25 (ESV)

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

It does not say in this text that man is to be married to one woman, but the implication and intent by God’s design is certainly understood.  God did not create an Eve and an Ellen for Adam.   He just created Eve.   In the New Testament, Jesus will clarify the intent, as well.  When confronted by the Pharisees of the day about marriage, Jesus stated:

Matthew 19:4-6 (ESV)

He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

When pressed further about divorce, Jesus added:

Matthew 19:8 (ESV)

He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.

This hardness of heart is where we see the root of polygamy.    God’s design was what Jesus clarified.   Paul will also clarify the intent when he writes to Timothy about who is qualified for the pastoral/elder position in the church.  A monogamous man is listed as one of the first criteria:

1 Timothy 3:2 (ESV)

Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,

So, no matter who we are talking about, tht was not the intent.   Whether it is Joash in the above passage, the eight wives of King David, the 700 wives of King Solomon (and over 1,000 concubines), Abraham’s two wives, or Jacob’s two wives (twelve sons that become the twelve tribes), it was not God design and God simply allowed it due to the hardness of heart.   In fact, in each of the above incidents, it created a mess for God to have to sort out. It was not God’s intent. 

We might be able to put this subject into the same vein as slavery.   God did not ordain it but due to the hardness of heart He allowed it and directed how it should be handle (in both the OT and the NT.   When you search the internet you get a variety of reasons for polygamy vs monogamy.   Again, none of them are God’s ordained reason for marriage.  They are plausible to consider.  They may make us feel better about it, but Jesus clarifies it all: It was the hardness of man’s heart that drives them to multiple women.  

Here are some of the historical, psychological and social normative reasons polygamy was accepted in the Bible:

1. Social protection - women were vulnerable and needed a man to care for them.  Man had multiple wive out of his chivalry. 
2. Procreation - mankind was told to go and fill the earth with children.   The nation of Israel was to populate the earth. What better way than polygamy. 
3. Prosperity - the number of wives a man could afford to feed, clothe and care for showed his vast wealth.  
4. Practical necessity - with property came need to have more help.  Wives gave more help (but with sexual benefits). 
5. Lust - man had multiple wives because he craves sexual promiscuity.  
6. Lineage  - often when a king came into leadership they would kill off the threats to the king (his brothers).  The new king had to create a new family lineage pool.  Hence, the need for more wives. 
7. Warring  - when a king went to battle he would take wives from the country he conquered to show his conquering prowess.  
8. Political - to avoid war, kings would arrange marriages to form political  alliances states.  
9. Commerce - women were property to be sold and that brought wealth and power to the father who could sell off his daughters. 
10. Dynasty - in order to keep a family dynasty, the king needed many sons.  Many wives produced many sons.  

God did not ordain monogamy.  It was due to the hardness of the man’s heart.  In the above passage it seems that Jehoiada, the priest, acquired two wives for the new King Joash because he had no heirs.   This was a way to secure the Davidic line, which would produce the Messiah.